Quality of Work and Psychosocial Risks: A French-British Comparison

Lecture by Duncan Gallie, Paris IAS fellow, for the City of Paris Université des Cadres

Presentation

Work pressure has been rising in most European societies since the economic crisis of 2008, contributing to increased psychosocial risks for employees. There is now extensive research that shows that psychosocial risks have severe consequences for both psychological and physical health. The presentation discusses the current state of research on psychosocial risks and the types of work and employment conditions that have been found to accentuate or moderate them. Relatively little however is known about how such factors are affected by the broader institutional characteristics of societies. To explore this, the patterns of change in the key risk factors are compared in France and Britain – two countries that provide a sharp contrast in terms of their institutional structures. France has a relatively centralized and highly regulated system of employment relations, while Britain is characterized by a decentralized and weakly regulated system. The comparison of the two countries leads to a consideration of the potential role of policy in affecting the development of psychosocial risks.

Duncan Gallie and Ying Zhou, "Job Control, Work Intensity and Work Stress" in Duncan Gallie (éd.),  Economic Crisis, Quality of Work and Social Integration, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013.

More informations: Resume of the Gollac Report on Psychosocial Risks, 2011

Duncan Gallie est professeur émérite au Nuffield College d’Oxford et professeur de sociologie à l’Université d’Oxford. Il a été membre de comités scientifiques pour plusieurs institutions de recherche européennes : IRESCO, IFRESI, CREST-GENES, l’École d’économie de Paris et l’Institut national danois de la recherche sociale. Il a été conseiller auprès du gouvernement français en qualité de membre d’un groupe d’experts sur les risques psychosociaux au travail (2011). Il a par ailleurs été vice-président (2004-2011) ainsi que secrétaire aux affaires étrangères (2006-2011) de la British Academy. Ses recherches s’appuient sur des études européennes comparatives autour du chômage et de la qualité de l’emploi. Actuellement, il travaille sur les changements dans la participation au travail et la précarité de l’emploi.

Key publications:

Gallie, D. Economic Crisis, Quality of Work and Social Integration. The European Experience, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013.

Gallie, D.  Employment Regimes and the Quality of Work, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007.

Gallie, D. and Paugam, S. Welfare Regimes and the Experience of Unemployment in Europe, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000.

Gallie, D., White, M., Cheng, Y. and Tomlinson, M. Restructuring the Employment Relationship, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1998.